Residents of CK-CL Block spent a Sunday morning playing sports and the evening dancing and dining at a party — all within walking distance.
“Our sports day and picnic are both popular events in the block calendar but due to Covid both got postponed. So we decided to club the two and hold them here in the park itself,” said secretary said Shanti Ranjan Paul, secretary of Bidhannagar CK-CL Block Residents’ Association.
Children had events like flat races and spoon-and-marble races. “I like playing with dolls but I guess running is fun too,” said six-year-old Anaira Gautam, who won the race in her category. Her younger brother Stavya ran too.
The men’s shot put was aced by college student Akashdeep Sengupta and the women’s flat race by Anindita Sarkar, who also won the other event for ladies — passing-the-ball.
A 10-over cricket match was held too and Kamalika Munshi won accolades for being the only female player. “I love playing cricket and would not miss the chance today despite being in Class XII now. The game teaches us to be calm during stressful situations like exams,” said the student of Our Lady Queen of the Missions School.
Kids in the fancy dress, adorned as the Kacha Badam singer and goddess Saraswati Sourced by The Telegraph
Tapash Sen, a player, noted how there were many more adults on the ground than children. “When we were kids we would wander about from the morning looking for an empty field to play on but now kids nave no enthusiasm,” he said.
Two tots, Darshini Bhattachrya and Srishiksha Maity, got joint first prizes in the look-alike contest, having dressed as goddess Saraswati and Bhuban Badyakar, the peanut seller who gained fame singing the Kacha Badam number.
“It’s only the senior citizens who were missing from the sports day,” said Monalisa Sengupta, who was in charge of the event.
Healing touch
The Wellness Clinic in BJ Block had organised a workshop for post-Covid patients in a bid to relive them from common complaints like insomnia and body ache.
“Many patients have been complaining of sleeping disorders and body ache even months after recovering from Covid. Some come with lingering respiratory problems too,” said physiotherapist Sanket Sinjan Manna, who went on to demonstrate some techniques to relax muscles and relive ailments.
A physiotherapist examines a patient at the BJ Block clinic. Brinda Sarkar
The pain management clinic uses — no medicines but — manual techniques, laser and electro-therapy for treatment. Manna used techniques of osteopathy (a treatment of moving, stretching and massaging muscles and joints) and chiropathy (a treatment that uses gentle thrusts on the aggrieved parts of the body).
“I had such terrible back pain the last few days I couldn’t even bend or sit properly. I was living on pain killers. But the physiotherapists here did some thrusts and cured me in two minutes,” smiled Prasanta Poddar, who lives in BJ Block. The audience got to watch him heal.
“Our methods are very effective for back, neck and knee pain, stroke and paralysis patients, gastritis, insomnia etc,” said director of clinic Sheenu Aggarwal. “Our goal is to prevent surgeries.”